Bisan Church

History & origins

The present Bisan community is connected with the memory of the nineteenth-century Catholic village of Nalmwe. The Archdiocese of Daegu's account of the martyrdom-related site links Nalmwe with a passage in a letter of Father Thomas Choe Yang-eop describing a devout elderly woman who taught the faith to many people and sustained a Catholic village. It also records that the family of Yi Eung-chil, who buried the body of Saint John Yi Yun-il on a hill behind Nalmwe after his martyrdom at Gwandeokjeong during the Byeongin Persecution, lived here. A pastoral report by Father Robert in 1887 recorded thirty Catholics living in Nalmwe.

Archdiocesan sources use different expressions for the administrative beginning of the parish. The historic-site account says that the growing community was raised to parish status in 1927, whereas the current archdiocesan parish directory gives June 12, 1928 as the date of establishment. Because the two records use different administrative terms—“raised to parish status” and “date of establishment”—it is safer to preserve both rather than arbitrarily discard one.

In 1931 a church was built using the structural framework of the Myeongdo Hall building transferred from Namsan Parish, and the present church was consecrated on January 29, 1958. Since then, Bisan Catholic Church has continued as a local parish while also remaining an archdiocesan historic site that preserves the memory of the Nalmwe Catholic village and Saint John Yi Yun-il.